03 May 2004 Devotion for Today "The Purifier" Malachi 3:1-4

03 May 2004  Devotion for Today  “The Purifier”  Malachi 3:1-4

            Would you believe once again I was met with something getting into my garbage can this morning? In fact the mess was even worse than yesterday’s even though I was certain I had secured the cans with lids firmly battened down tight.  Some larger animal- I presume a dog-or something with the intelligence to knock the can over to get at the goodies inside.  Of course, family members hurriedly rushed off to work and to school and had no time to do anything but to call the situation to my attention.  Remembering my devotional from yesterday, I did not grumble so much today.  Instead I secured two large plastic bags and set to work.  In fact I was able to hum a tune of praise to the Lord while doing so.  The job finished, I returned to the house to clean up.  The smell of the residue on my hands was sickening, however.  I must have washed several times to rid the smell of garbage off my hands.  I have a busy day today, and I must look (and smell) presentable.  O why won’t this smell come off.  Finally I resorted to pouring some cologne on my hands.  Only then did I discover that I had mistaken my wife’s bottle of cologne for mine.  I consoled myself into thinking that perhaps the sweet female perfume would cover over the putrid stench to the same degree as to neutralize both odors.  It did not.  I only hope that the perfumey-garbagy smell will subside in time for my monthly minister’s fellowship luncheon later in the morning!

            Malachi’s words were quite apropos this morning in chapter 3 as the prophet describes the purifying influence of the presence and Words of the Lord:

"Behold, I send My messenger, And he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming," Says the Lord of hosts. ² "But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire And like launderers' soap. ³ He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer to the Lord An offering in righteousness. ⁴ "Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem Will be pleasant to the Lord, As in the days of old, As in former years.”

         
            In this passage the prophet tells of the Messenger of the Covenant, who is the prophecy of the coming Messiah.  Among many things His role will be to purify the hearts and minds of Israel and make them clean and pure as a refiner’s fire and as a launderer’s soap.  Not many have observed a refiner’s fire, but many know the smell and feel of launderer’s soap- particularly homemade lye soap which was quite common in my West Virginia homeland until recent generations made the factory made varieties more popular.  I was talking to my grandmother the other day about lye soap.  Her aunt-the one who raised her- used to make it.  My grandmother would assist her in the making of it.  It was a curious compound of boiled ashes, beef or pork tallow or bacon grease, and water.  Its texture was quite coarse to the skin- no conditioners or moisturizers in those days!  The soap was clumped together in bricks and left to dry.  True, the soap was not pleasant to use- but she said nothing made you feel cleaner afterward.  She also said people did not bathe as often in the old days as people do now.  I suppose that is how effective the lye soap was back then.

            Yet the soap that the Lord will use will wash us clean from the inside.  As Wesley’s hymn says, “His blood will make the foulest clean.”  Have a blessed day!

 

Rev. Jeffery C. Russell
Salem Baptist Church
Elizabeth City, NC
jefferyrussell@earthlink.net

 

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